SOCCER SHOTS:> Stephen Shakeshaft's Football Pictures are at the Museum of Liverpool Life, Pier Head, November 23 - February 17.

ECHO Picture Editor Stephen Shakeshaft has had the football scene in focus since the 1960s.

Now a new exhibition of his work, supported by the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post, celebrates four decades in the life of Liverpool and Everton.

The exhibition, at the Museum of Liverpool Life, at the Pier Head, runs from November 23 to February 17, and is entitled "Soccer Shots: Stephen Shakeshaft's Football Photos."

In a city clearly divided into Red and Blue halves, the photographer's lack of bias has enabled him to chronicle the highs and lows of both Liverpool and Everton down the decades.

And to capture the agony and the ecstasy not only on the pitch and on the terraces - but behind the scenes, too.

"The key to taking good football pictures lies in remaining neutral," Steve explains. "At a derby game for instance, the photographer will be the least animated person in the whole stadium.

"We don't read situations as a fan would - and a goal being scored doesn't always make the best picture.

"Photographing football involves far more than getting the goals and if you get caught up in the emotion, you lose sight of what is happening around you.

"However just because the football photographer has a deadpan expression doesn't mean he isn't enjoying the game. I have had some of my most memorable experiences following Liverpool and Everton - in terms of emotion, job satisfaction and onceor twice, danger!"

The truth of this remark is evident in the exhibition of more than 100 of Steve's soccer photographs, which opens at the Museum of Liverpool Life later this month.

Spanning four decades of club life from the boot room and the training ground to the European glory trail, the collection also showcases Steve's unique personal take on what football means in his home city.

Here are some of the star names, the top games and the moments of local legend, enshrined for posterity.

But alongside the familiar faces of Bill Shankly, Howard Kendall, Kevin Keegan and the like are some of Steve's pictures conveying the more unsung side of football : players in a tender moment with their children, a lonely manager pacing the turf in an empty stadium, the raw collective grief of the Kop in defeat.

Though Steve says he doesn't have a particular favourite among all the soccer snaps he has taken in 35 years, the candid picture of Tommy Smith - minus teeth - would come close."This one interests me because it was taken in the European Cup final which Liverpool won 3-1 against Roma. I had missed the second goal, scored by Smith, so I was determined to get a good shot of him at the end of the game.

"While all the other photographers waited for him to turn round I ran to the back to get my picture. It turned out that the trainer kept Tommy's teeth in his pocket and the player had wanted to get them back before the photographers got to him!"

For Steve football will always conjure up this city's distinctive passion and tribalism, the spontaneous choruses of the fans and the warmth coming off the Kop - not just figuratively, but in a heat haze so tangible he says it was like wearing an extra sweater!

Stephen Shakeshaft's Football Photos is a special ECHO publication to coincide with a unique exhibition in Liverpool.

It features the work of Liverpool Daily Post and ECHO chief photographer Stephen Shakeshaft and is being staged at the Museum of Liverpool Life at the Pier Head until February 2002.

More than 100 photographs - some never before published - will be on display, featuring some of the best moments of the city's soccer heritage.Shanks, Liddell, Dalglish, Kendall, Paisley, Dixie Dean, Fagan, Young and many more are all in Stephen's collection.

Most of these are previewed in our special publication - it is a must for all soccer fans. Soccer Shots: Stephen Shakeshaft's Football Photos will be available from your newsagent on Monday. Price #1.

To order a copy here, simply print out the order form and send it to the Echo's subscriptions department by clicking on the icon below...